Chinese New Year's Reunion Dinner

We had our new year's meal at WY's on the 28th of January. Last year, D, WY, and I cooked for our friends, but this year, we prepared the meal with our guests' help. It was a quite different enjoyment as if we were a family helping each other and having fun in the kitchen on the new year's eve. I used to help my grandmother and mother when I was little.
A brought a very important food, chicken, which means "family". L brought red wine, and everybody understands that red is an indispensable colour for the Chinese new year! Girls' group (T + WY + I) made Taiwanese dumpling (boiled dumpling), while boys group (K + Y) made Japanese dumpling (fried). We were not competing but the situation did remind me of a Japanese TV program. It always presents two versions of the same food every week and asks its guests to choose from one of them. The hosts always ask "Which dish do you want for tonight?". (can anybody help me with the Japanese line?)

A and T were very lucky to get the only 2 coins put into 2 of the dumplings. Wish you have a good fortune in 2006.

We also rolled spring rolls. Sausages from Taiwan were absolutely delicious! Steamed cod was meant to suggest that "everybody will have more than enough in the new year". I really wanted to try WY's fried sweet year cakes. The year cakes were dancing on the frying pan when the fire was on! But she's too shy to put them on the table.

It was a nice dinner, just like a family meal.

K. is moving away.


Things will be emptied out during these two days and then absence will become a reality.

"A Question of Power" Project

Here is a piece of information about The Real People Theatre Company.
It is looking for programs to be added to its 3-year project. Sue, the project director, wants to look at the issue from a global viewpoint, so that she is especially looking for female presenters from countries other than Britain (as she is herself already rehearsing a drama piece). She wants women to present their own stories, feelings, and experiences about "power". All aspects of power can be discussed. All types of performance are welcome: you can act, sing, recite, dance, play an instrument, tell a story, or any other form that you can imagine. Both group and individual presentations will do. The only condition, I think, is that all performers should be female.

Please phone Sue if you want to talk about it.

Wanyu's Birthday and a Cake of my First-try

There are a few aquarii around me, including myself.
Is it what "Birds of a feather flock together" means?

Wanyu's birthday party gave me a perfect opportunity to make a cake. I have been doing some baking since last year but have never tried any cake. It took me some time to collect ingredients and figure out the best way to make it. It's a lot of fun indeed and I learned a lot of new vocabulary in the process. (Maybe I can offer a class, "English in Bakery", in my future career.)

It is a Cocoa Chiffon cake with cream and chocolate icing.
I was very grateful that the flour mix grew nicely because I couldn't afford any failure yesterday. The party started at 9pm, and it was already 6 when the chiffon base was done, and god knew that I still needed to dress up (sorry, it might sound as if it's the most important thing...)

The starry-flower decorations were not as difficult as imagined.
However, I practiced the central portrait several times on another plate. For instance, I did not quite know how to draw "eyes". I tried several shapes and styles but still was not satisfied. Smiling eyes became my choice. Who said that "smile is a universal language"? That person is so right! At least it's a good excuse for an amateur like me.

I was happy about my first try (both the process and the result) and pleased to know that the birthday girl enjoyed it too.
And most important of all, there was not any food-poisoning reported so far.

Cats and York

I am never a big fan of cats, but some of (or most of) my friends are.
I do not dislike cats but always have partiality for dogs and still keep 2 doggies back home in Taiwan.
It seems to me that dogs are passionate and very expressive of feeling, while cats are more reserved about their emotion and appear to be rather quiet.
However, I found cats are passionate in a very different way. They seem to resist any living creature nearby but in fact attract more attention. I suspect it is this attention that cats always enjoy in secret. In a sense they are more like human beings. Dogs seem to be angels in fairy tales to me.

There are some imitations of cats in the cityscape of York.
I saw a picture of one of the imitations in A's guidebook to York last November. It's my first time to notice them, and I couldn't believe they are imitations. For example, that one on the roof after a pigeon on St. Michael's square, I thought they were real or at least the pigeon was, but neither of them is.
When I saw them in reality a couple of days later, I was very amused by the sense of humour of the city.
Then in the following months, I spotted another cat in Gilly Gate.
I do remember there is still another on a wall near the river.

The spotty cat in the picture is real. I always see her in the courtyard in front of K's flat.
Those beautiful spots nicely rest on the curve of her body. She is fairly shy but adorable.
It seems that York city is very friendly with cats, or at least one of the city-planners is.

Or does cat have anything to do with the history of York?
I cannot make any connection so far.

Strawberry Puff

A. sent me a parcel of Taiwanese snacks from DC. I was so pleased when it arrived. Thanks, A.
They are all truly made in Taiwan!
I haven't had it for years. I am too careless to be a gourmet and too forgetful to remember good taste. But the desire to have a bite of puff never disappears.
When I was in primary school, this brand of puff was very popular but very luxurious for me. I could have one small pink (strawberry) or yellow (cream) pack only when I went on excursions. Maybe that's why I was so into making puffs last summer: I wanted my eaters to have that kind of pleasure as I used to have. My mother did not want kids to have sweet tooth. She did a good job, I guess. However, in a cold weather like today, who can or want to resist sweet?

The bite of puff was nostalgic. It brought back old school days.
The bite was refreshing, as it energized me with friendship.
The bite was not as rich as I remembered, perhaps because my memory enriched the taste.
But the bite of puff today brought in a new happiness.

Sweet is such an essential to happiness. When you say sweet, you smile.
What is the relationship between "sweet" and "sweetheart"?
A sweetheart is attractive to you as sweet, but sometimes you simply want to resist your sweetheart as you want to deny sweet. Is that why sweetheart is sweetheart?

Prologue to Sorry-ology

Someday last December, I was driven by a feeling of moodiness to start this blog. I found "sorry" seems to me a never-ending remorse. Sometimes it is quiet and tame when happiness occasionally shouts outloud, but the solemn voice of remorse is invincible.
The depressing indulgence persists and repeats, and I have to constantly remind myself to turn away.

So that I turned away one day to my first Christmas shopping in 2005.